Wine ChroniclesMargaux, Latour, Trotanoy and so much more
New Year Wine Dinner with Friends By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles 5 January 2026 Thanks to Tamar and Keith Levenberg for hosting an excellent dinner with Maureen Nelson, Joel Davidson and myself. I had not seen Maureen in ages, so it was especially great to see her: You haven’t changed one bit, Maureen! Each […]
Just in time for the holidays: Dinner at Giscours
Biodiversity contributes to Margaux Renaissance By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles 12 December 2025 It had just rained when I arrived at Château Giscours – the eve of my birthday on 5 December this year. Under a veil of evening mist, the estate had fallen into contemplative quiet. As my car that early evening rolled […]
Château Lafon-Rochet
A New Chapter of Freshness and Finesse By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles 30 October 2025 When Vincent Bache-Gabrielsen (photo above, credit to Château Lafon Rochet) took charge of Château Lafon-Rochet last year, it marked a quiet but meaningful shift for this celebrated classified growth in the Bordeaux appellation of Saint-Estèphe. Having worked within the […]
The Long Game of Greatness: Mouton Rothschild 1986
By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles Main photo: Chateau-Mouton-Rothschild-Cuvier-nuit-©-Pierre-Grenet-Astoria-studio.jpg 17 October 2025 “I bought this wine upon release,” a dear friend told me, speaking about Château Mouton Rothschild 1986. “When I tried one of my bottles three years ago, it still hadn’t opened up”, he said in September 2025, nearly 40 years later. World famous […]
Médoc Blanc officially born
The red stronghold has a white awakening — Bordeaux’s Médoc embraces a lighter side. By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles 14 October 2025 Last year, I wrote in Decanter of prospects for an official Médoc Blanc appellation. That consideration is now reality. Starting with the 2025 vintage, winegrowers from all eight Médoc AOCs, including Margaux, Pauillac, […]
Legend bottled: Château d’Yquem 1967
By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles 13 October 2025 Over a recent dinner with wine pals in Strasbourg, we enjoyed older vintages, some better than others. Château Mouton Rothschild 1986 was stupendous, and I loved Château Ducru Beaucaillou 1986, happily sans TCA: From 1986 to the early 1990s, the estate had some TCA problems, so […]
Top brand Bordeaux 2015
Tasted 10 years on by Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles 7 March 2025 Thanks to the London-based Bordeaux Index wine trading company, I tasted topflight Bordeaux from the 2015 vintage, “10 years on”. Bordeaux Index hosted the daylong January tasting under excellent conditions: wines at proper temperatures and stemware and plenty of space to comfortably […]
2020 Bordeaux: bottled classic
By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com 21 October 2023 TASTING NOTES CLICK HERE Dear Readers, It has been a while, but after buying a new apartment with renovation work, prioritizing articles in magazines for which I am paid, and work from my day job at the Council of Europe, I took a hiatus from this website. […]
Mouton Rothschild: reaching back 40 years
And some talk of “first growth bias” By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com A wonderful evening at the cozy and elegant French restaurant La Chaumière in Georgetown in Washington D.C. It was great to catch up with wine friends most of whom I hadn’t seen since Covid struck. We chose as theme the venerable First Growth […]
Bordeaux 2021 from barrel: the whites
Make Acidity Great Again By Panos Kakaviatos for wine-chronicles.com Updated 27 May with the reds A quick reference to tasting notes below. I had published my reflections on the white wines of Bordeaux on 13 May, which I think shine most in 2021. The reds are now online on a new page: HERE. With thanks […]
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